The day has come…brace yourself, we’re about to chat all things programmatic. Much like the high school days of trigonometry, there appears to be a sadistic undertone to the difficulty in describing programmatic marketing. Here at Unify, we love a challenge, so let’s give it a crack.
What type of advertising is programmatic?
Programmatic ads are a component of digital marketing, comprising of display ads (including banners), ads on videos, social media, audio, as well as native pieces and digital out-of-home. Yes, you’re right – that’s most of the internet. It’s everywhere, yet many of us know little about programmatic; let’s dive in…
What’s the process of programmatic?
Alright, so you’ve got yourself an ad you’re pleased with; you’re ready for the world to see it. Even more than that, you’ve got a strategy and a rough target audience in mind. What’s next?
What is a Demand-Side Platform (DSP)?
Demand-Side Platforms, or DSPs, are your liaison and champion in the programmatic world. You provide them with your advertisement and tell them how much you’re willing to spend and the sorts of people you want to target. The DSP – along with a programmatic specialist – will then identify across the digital sphere the best areas for you to advertise in – those that will reap the lowest cost for the largest audience engagement. Through the continual building of data and feedback, the DSP will get more specific in its targets, leading to minimal wastage. Some examples of DSPs are The Trade Desk, Google DV360 and MediaMath.
So as far as you, the advertiser, is concerned, once you’ve put in the early work you can take your foot off the pedal a little – letting the DSP do the leg work for you.
What is a Supply-Side Platform (SSP)?
Supply-side platforms are the sibling of DSPs, each relying on the other to successfully go about their business. Advertising platforms utilise SSPs. A supply-side platform is an auction of marketing possibilities, with DSPs and traders bidding for its advertising space inventory. SSPs also provide DSPs with the information that allows the purchasing platforms to know whether the right target audience resides there. Examples of SSPs are Google, OpenX and Rubicon Project.
Is programmatic the death of human sales?
The definitive answer is no. While a DSP will collect data and insights, it cannot have the knowledge of a client or audience’s desires like a programmatic expert will. For successful and profitable outcomes, it’s still imperative that a specialist builds effective strategies and works with the DSP. It’s also necessary for an individual to apply common sense to the data collected in the AI algorithm.
How do I get started with programmatic marketing?
Educating yourself on the ins and outs of programmatic is your first step. Before you start investing your money, you need to understand how to utilise it – otherwise, you risk having high costs and little reward. This is easier said than done, with programmatic being a complex system that can take a while to get your head around.
Alternatively, you can employ a specialist team, such as the one we have at Unify, to harness their knowledge and experience to create a programmatic campaign that will reap positive results.
We hope this has given a small insight into the vast and complex world of programmatic marketing. This is, of course, a broad overview – keep checking our blog as we unpack more minute aspects of programmatic and all things digital marketing!
